Shayne Skov, Stanford football player, stands second from right, between his mother Terri Skov, seated, and father Peter Skov. The occasion was his graduation from Trinity Pawling School in Pawling, N.Y., in 2009.

Photo: Handout

Shayne Skov, Stanford football player, stands second from right,...

Image 4 of 4

Stanford running back Toby Gerhart during practice in Palo Alto, Calif., on Monday, August 10, 2009.

For a kid who was kicked off his high school football team, Shayne Skov has traveled a long and, at times, difficult road.

He journeyed from an indifferent approach to academics at Piedmont High to an exemplary classroom performance at a boarding school in upstate New York. Earlier, he spent three years in Guadalajara, Mexico, where his family moved from San Francisco mainly to care for his mother, Terri, who has multiple sclerosis.

It was on concrete lots covered with dirt in Guadalajara that he learned to play football. The drills were rougher and the parents more zealous than anything he would later encounter as a prep. He was a skinny wide receiver and safety, and the other players naturally dubbed him "El Gringo."

Amigos, you should see him now. He's a 6-foot-3, 241-pound freshman linebacker who runs like a defensive back and was one of the prize catches in Stanford's recruiting class. He wouldn't mind redshirting; the coaches, though, are inclined to put him on the field right away.

He helped recruit that class himself, by the way. After committing on Sept. 1 of his junior year - at the time the earliest football commitment in Stanford history - he started to contact other prospects who were on Stanford's radar. It's not unusual for a recruit to try to persuade a peer or two to join him. Skov, though, called about 20 prospects, in some cases having to finagle cell phone numbers from skeptical parents.

He said he saw "something unique" about Stanford's school/sports competitiveness and felt it would take "a voice other than simply the coaching staff" to get that point across to other top players. He text-messaged them and "built a relationship steadily so that eventually I could talk to them about deeper matters."

Top recruiting class

It's difficult to gauge the success of his persuasive powers, but Stanford did wind up with one of the best recruiting classes in the nation, a startling development for a school that hasn't been to a bowl since 2001.

"They've got a real bond," coach Jim Harbaugh said of the freshmen, "and a lot of it comes from the leadership of Shayne Skov."

Meanwhile, the once indifferent 10th-grader is planning to major in physics.

"I've always had a mathematical mind, but physics provides a more tangible and visual way of looking at problems, because in calculus and pure mathematics it's simply numbers, but in physics there's a cause and effect," he said. "There are certain laws that initiate the interactions that we see. There are certain natural forces that cause things to occur. It's something I can visualize, almost."

Skov (it rhymes with rove) is between bites on two sandwiches in the Arrillaga Family Sports Center when he is asked about playing football in Mexico. "It was the foundation of my football abilities," he said. "It's much different than here because of the whole macho culture. Parents don't complain when their sons get banged up in practice. I learned to play the game with a physical nature that I wouldn't have been able to learn here as a kid."

His father, Peter, had made some money in the Internet boom working for a startup. In 2001, he was laid off from his 12-hour-a-day job during the dot-com bust. Terri, a former San Francisco firefighter whom he had met when they attended Lowell High School, had been diagnosed with MS in 2000, and needed extended care.

After graduating from Cal, Peter had visited a friend in Guadalajara who was doing nonprofit work with the Huichol Indians in the Sierra Madre.

"I'm a bit of a nontraditional thinker," Peter said. "I married a black person. My kids are biracial, and I thought: What a wonderful cultural experience it would be to live in another country, live another value structure. I wanted to do something different with my life at that time. I had a little bit of money, so I said, 'Screw it. Let's move to Mexico.' "

He started an auto body shop and was able to provide better care for his wife in a less-expensive economy. She has "a very aggressive form of MS," he said. "She's largely bedridden. She needed somebody around all the time."

His four children all became fluent in Spanish. Shayne's brother, Patrick, is now a linebacker at a prep school in New Jersey, while Olivia, 9, and Annika, 7, are with the family in Mexico.

Ready for high school

When Shayne was ready for high school, Peter sent him to live with his aunt and uncle in Piedmont, feeling he'd be better prepared for college there. As a sophomore, though, Shayne let his grades sag to a level that was unacceptable to Peter.

Doug Mandigo, then the Piedmont varsity coach and now on the staff at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, recalls talking Peter out of yanking Shayne off the team. "I didn't think it was the right time," Mandigo said. "He was a big part of the team."

The coach, father and son agreed to set goals and parameters so he could finish the season. Three days later, he missed the bus to a game while spending time with his girlfriend. Mandigo booted him.

Mandigo, an East Coast native, recommended that the Skovs check out Trinity Pawling, a boarding school about an hour outside New York City. Mandigo told him what to expect: "A coat and tie every day. Study hall every night. No girls. The other side of the country. Completely structured. Winter weather."

It sounded great, to Dad. Shayne "was not happy," Peter said. "He had all the girls loving him; he was a football star, and I wasn't having any of it. ... We were about to kill one another, but Trinity Pawling saved our relationship."

With financial assistance from the school, Shayne spent three years there, repeating his sophomore year. Not once did he call home to complain.

"It honestly changed my life, finding teachers that cared about my development as a person," he said.

Choosing Stanford

He chose Stanford partly because he felt the same way about the coaches. Maybe the university will give him a more formal role in future recruiting. "The recruiting class that I came with was just the beginning," he said. "Within the immediate future, we have an opportunity to contend with the top teams in the country."

Ask most blue-chip recruits where they're going to be in 10 years, and the vast majority will say: the NFL. Skov said he hopes to use his physics degree for a defense contractor in the private sector. "I like being on the cutting edge in terms of innovation," he said.

He wouldn't reject the NFL but knows pro football is an unsafe bet for even the best college players. "I'd say to other athletes to look at life from a 40-year viewpoint instead of four years," he said. "They'll be happier in the long run by looking at things in a larger perspective."